HARTFORD – The Coginchaug girls soccer team lost to Morgan by a five-goal margin earlier in the season and a four-goal margin in the Shoreline Conference tournament.
When the Blue Devils practiced penalty kicks earlier in the week, it didn’t go well.
So Coginchaug was the underdog and when the Class S championship game against Morgan came down to penalties, maybe not too many people were thinking Coginchaug would win.
But their fans carried Ted Lasso-inspired “Believe” signs and the Blue Devils did just that. Their freshman goalkeeper who had not done well at penalty kick practice saved one PK and that was enough, as Coginchaug defeated Morgan 2-1 (4-3 in PKs) for their first state championship Sunday afternoon at Trinity Health Stadium.
“I think we had more confidence in ourselves and it being the finals, there’s so much more pressure,” said goalkeeper Annaliese Meisenkothen, who was named the game’s Most Outstanding Player. “It was us believing in ourselves and knowing we could do it, that just pushed us over the edge to get the win.
Meisenkothen made one save in penalty kicks and seven overall.
“It was a lot of pressure,” she said. “I just tried to clear my head, say some self-affirmations.
“We did PKs during practice and I didn’t do that well so going into this, I was just trying to stay centered.”
Class S girls soccer: Coginchaug wins on PKs, 4-3 #ctgsoc pic.twitter.com/DIyawjbXLA
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Coginchaug, the fifth seed, came the farthest of any championship team: the Blue Devils didn’t even make the tournament last year.
The difference was their six freshmen, said sophomore Taylor Kestenbaum, who scored the winning penalty: “Our freshman really came up and helped us a lot.”
“I kind of think they just didn’t know, they’re so young,” Coginchaug coach Liam Isleib said. “They’ve never been here before. They did well under pressure.”
Isleib said he changed his team’s strategy for the third meeting with No. 7 Morgan.
“They smoked us (before),” he said. “So we played a little more defensively and protected Anna in the back. We wanted to be low scoring. We knew we weren’t going to score many against this team; they’re really good. Every one of their players is good.”
Morgan led 1-0 at halftime but sophomore Allison Booth tied the score with 23:48 left for Coginchaug. The teams went through two overtimes and then to PKs.
Meisenkothen gave up two PK goals but made a save on the third attempt. Coginchaug’s Addison Nappi scored to make it 3-2, Riley Febbroriello tied it for Morgan. Kestenbaum put Coginchaug ahead 4-3 and Morgan’s next PK went off the post and Meisenkothen flew out of the goal to celebrate.
“It was a lot – a lot of emotions, a lot of hard work,” Isleib said. “It was an amazing game.”
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